US oriented IIT systems has given India TCS & Banglore: Ross Bassett

Bassett, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, has spent the past 13 years looking at some of the 850 Indians who studied engineering -including 305 doctorates -at MIT over a century. Bassett traces their stories in his new book, The Technological Indian.

March 14, 2016, 12:51 IST

When American engineer turned-historian Ross Bassett visits India, he sees connections to the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) everywhere -buildings like Kanchenjunga and Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, in companies like TCS and Datamatics, and even in everyday brands like Bisleri. All of these were created with the involvement of MIT alumni.

Bassett, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, has spent the past 13 years looking at some of the 850 Indians who studied engineering -including 305 doctorates -at MIT over a century. Bassett traces their stories in his new book, The Technological Indian.

His study throws up some nuggets: the first Indian went to MIT as far back as 1882; most Indians who went before Independence were from Mumbai, Pune and Gujarat; and a number of industrial families as well as government officials sent their sons to MIT in the mid-20th century in a break from humanities focused Oxbridge. Bassett spoke to Vaishnavi Chandrashek the influence of American technical education

Why did you look at MIT?

It hosted only a fraction of Indian students who went to the US. I sampled Indians who had gone to Stanford and Berkley, and I came to the conclusion that MIT was more interesting; more prominent Indians went there. Even if a relatively small number of people attended MIT, the effect of that has been multiplied by who they were. So when you have someone like Adi Godrej or Aditya Birla, they would be successful no matter what, but it says something that they had their choice to go anywhere and they chose MIT. You show that in the late 19th century, Bal Gangadhar Tilak's newspapers Kesari and Mahratta helped Indians look to American education.

It's consistent with what we know of Tilak that the Mahratta had this global perspective... The Mahratta saw the source of India's problems as the failure to compete in technology. The textile industry was developing at that time in western India, and Tilak and his compatriots made the intellectual case on the need for worldclass education.

How did MIT influence the IITs considering that it was involved with only two institutions -IIT Kanpur and BITS, Pilani? Other IITs were set up with other countries.

It seems to me that the IITs made a decision to unify their system of education and converged on the American better or worse, the American system had a more powerful hold over Indian engineering educators than the Russian, British or German system, especially post-war. Even in simple things like using American, or MIT, textbooks.

Why for worse?

The American-oriented IIT system has given India TCS and Bangalore, and people who are able to successfully work in an American environment. The negative side is that it's led a number of Indians to come to the US. What is known as brain drain is testimony that people who'd had this kind of American education found it easier to use in the US than in India. A form of engineering education that was not so American-oriented could have led to different results.

What was different about the MIT American model?

In the early 20th century, MIT introduced a very scientific approach to engineering, an approach that is entrepreneurial and competitive. But it was really after World War II that MIT gained cachet as people saw what technology could do. That MIT helped develop radar and afterwards got so much government funding. IITs have not had the funding that the US research system has had. The American model is very resource intensive.There's also more emphasis on scientific culture, on abstractions, than in the British or German system. That's part of what India has taken from the American model. It's good in a way but the JEE doesn't ask you if you're interested in building things -in the actual doing of engineering rather than the solving of science problems.

Recently, we've seen IITians who studied in the US rise to run global companies. Is their success an Indian or American triumph?

Both. It's a triumph of Indian individuals but it's a little questionable whether India as a country triumphs. That's why I use the term “technological Indian” not “technological India” because, especially in the last 20-30 years, technological Indians have developed and been able to achieve great things but exactly how India has benefited is a little less clear.

Any recent trends in MIT's Indian graduates?

This year, MIT had 843 applications from Indian citizens, the largest of any country ... I did a little study to find out where Indian graduates of MIT end up now -there are two major poles, one is Wall Street and the other Silicon Valley. I guess you could say (Indian graduates) have a good sense of where the action is and where the best places for returns on their ability are, though I don't know if that's necessarily the optimal position for society.